The Spanish Progressive Rock Encyclopedia

Rafael Cabrera (vocals), M.G. Peydró (guitars), Vicente Guillot (keys), José Pereira (bass), Emilio Santonja (drums).

Tarantula was part of the first wave of Spanish progressive band from the 70's. This first album from 1976, heretofore a difficult find, has just been reissued on CD in Korea. A five-piece of guitars, keys, drums and bass, fronted by capable lead vocalist Rafael Cabrera, who often changes from a near folksy familiarity to an operatic vengeance in a matter of moments. The sound tends to be keyboard driven, although not overly complex, and is supported well by the rhythm section and good writing. Their style is fairly original, elements of rock, classical, blues, folk and other forms in various extended arrangements, with changing tempos and rhythmic textures. Some rudimentary comparisons might be made to some of the Italian bands of the same period (the 4-piece Le Orme, for example), but an occasional hard-rock outburst lends the band a different character beyond the progressive realm, giving them a truly chameleon feel. But it's not the musicianship that stands out here (although it does stand strong), but the excellent writing coupled with Cabrera's powerful vocals. These two factors, taken together with some clever arrangements, give the music a strength far beyond what might typically be expected, yet at times the arrangements tend to become a little overbearing and thwart some excellent possibilities within the music, offering little more than simplistic melodic keyboard riffing - but somehow these episodes never seem to last long and things quickly get back into good balance. In short, the keywords here are powerful and tasty. (?)

Tarantula had been described to me as some of the best prog to come out of Spain. I'd say that was hype. In my opinion, there were much better bands such as Iceberg, Atila, Mezquita, Crack, Gotic, Granada... Well, the list goes on. Tarantula, under the leadership of Vicente Guillot, released two albums of which I'm aware, unimaginatively named "Tarantula 1" and "Tarantula 2". "Tarantula 1" is the most progressive which is probably why I think it is the better of the two albums. The first contains strong presence of both vocals and keyboards, as well as a good dose of guitar and some flute. Only one short song is entirely instrumental. I don't know what it is about this album but I just can't get completely into it. There are some nice melodies decent (but not outstanding) musicianship, and a fair amount of complexity but I'm never drawn in. Maybe it's the dramatic vocal style that I don't like. Maybe it's an average rhythm section. I guess I just expected more after listening to the likes of some of the bands mentioned above. "Tarantula 2" has all new members except for Guillot. The album is a heavier, more rock-oriented album with both male and female vocals. It sounds like they're trying to do the Uriah Heap combination of hard rock and art-rock. The female vocalist is positively sinister sounding. I wouldn't want to meet her in a dark alley! As far as I'm concerned, Tarantula are not a very good representation of good Spanish progressive. Mike Taylor

Review of the record "Tarántula" (in spanish)